The Prince and his destiny

Ubisoft's Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within, the much awaited sequel to the gorgeous, surprisingly beautiful Sands Of Time, features the Prince as a different individual, he looks darker, with a certain amount of fear or anxiety on his face, who seems to be worried about lots of things, with that beard and the hair which flies in the direction of the wind. Both his physical and mental state resembles that of a prisoner who had been through the most horrible things in life. But you will certainly see a ray of hope in his eyes, as you take control of the Prince, one of the most loved characters in the video game history, especially for the ones who got addicted to the Sands Of Time.

REQUIREMENTS
OS: 2000/XP/2003
Processor: Pentium III or AMD Athlon 1 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Video Card: DirectX 9-compliant graphics card
Sound Card: DirectX 8-compliant sound card
DirectX Version: 9.0c
Hard Drive Space: 2 GB

THE PRINCE OR PAUPER?
A long time has passed since our Prince released an ancient evil in the Sands Of Time, the largest mistake in his whole life. But even after defeating the evil Vazier who tricked him and restoring the dagger with some help from the beautiful princess Farah, the bad luck still stays with the Prince. He just didn't seem to have suffered enough for his stupid actions, as he is now hunted by Dahaka, a freaky, ugly monster who keeps chasing the Prince in the past and present. Nothing seemed to stop him as he chased the prince, destroying anything which came in his way. The Prince is supposed to die and his death is inevitable, but he thinks that he can change his fate.

His mission is to stop the Empress of Time, Kaileena from creating the Sands Of Time, so that he can change history as well as his destiny! Kaileena also knows that her fate is written and she will die too. But she accepts her fate as it forgives nobody, and stays scared. Everything changes as she comes across the Prince. The Prince will have a number of opponents to face on the way to changing his fate including Dahaka, Kaileena and also another female character known as Shahdee who seemed to be made specially to impress the gamers with her dressing code, and a number of Stone Golems.

THE DARKER VERSION
This game proves to be more intense and has got more mature content than the Sands Of Time, and the Prince murmuring some ugly words will not prove too much surprising. With Monica Belluci doing the voice of the mysterious, but powerful character, Kaileena, the voice acting has reached higher levels. The tiring, but the darker voice of the Prince is well depicted and the other characters follow in an impressive manner, especially that of Shahdee. It is a great experience to journey as the Prince as he discover your strength, accumulate all his courage, learn from his failures, an invoke the Warrior Within to defy his fate and turn it upside down, knowing the fact that he is the Prince Of Persia!

You will not have the young princess Farah in this adventure, but Prince certainly have Kaileena, even if she is not at all the perfect replacement. Well, Prince is only some one who want to stay alive at any cost, and not some big hero who wants to save some kingdom or other people - a bit selfish for a leading character of a game like this. He is all set to pay for what he did due to his arrogance, but his self-belief still drives him in the battles. Shahdee is just one of the lower level villains you will come across. Another character you will manage to come across is the Sand Wraith.

INCREDIBLE COMBAT
Warrior Within has got a major improvement in the combat system, compared to the previous versions. It involves a number of stylish, variable combos and special moves which you keep learning as you progress, as well as unlocking new weapons and powers which allows you to rewind time, slow it down and lots more. The sands which you gain from the enemies and the destructible objects helps you to boost the sand tanks which is seen near the health meter on the top-left corner of your screen, which will help you in executing the powers you have earned - without these sands, you may not be able to overcome certain traps, a few of them may require lots of thinking and hours of retries.

You will have thugs, ninjas, hounds, crows, stone golems to fight with, as you also have to use your acrobatic skills like walking on the walls, swinging off the poles as well as walking on those ledges with extreme level of balance. Even if you are not a gymnast, you will be easily knowing the way to go if you have enough experience in these kind of games, but those who haven't played any similiar game may abandon the hopes after jumping into the abyss again and again, once you see a huge abyss, instead of walking on the wall and grabbing a rope nearby.

There are lots of axes, swords, daggers, maces etc to help you in your quest, you will be able to keep two weapons, enabling you to throw one of them if necessary. The save points are the fountains which you will find on lots of areas, but there are a few places where you will desperately need one and can't find them. After saving your adventure, you will be able to save again after whacking a few more enemies if you can manage to get back to the fountain. There are some art work, video and weapon gallery to unlock as you progress in the game.

A WORTHY SEQUEL
As you smash everything around you, the sight of your opponents getting cut into exact two halves, vanishing into thin dust, as well as the scene of these guys falling off the ledge if two close to the edge, will give you the impression of how much stylish this game is, especially if you watch them in slow motion. But the camera problem will still haunt you, apart from the real enemies in the game, as it will hinder your movement, confuse you while fighting and also make you fall a down the abyss while jumping. It would have been if the player had a good control of the camera angles, but he doesn't, exposing the major weak point of the game.

The game is gorgeous in the graphics department and the Prince looks exactly how he should look like, and Kaileena and Shahdee, the two female characters in the game, are detailed very well, from the top to the bottom, giving both of them very good figure. It is more evident in the cutscenes, where these two looks more sexy than ever. The surroundings look amazing, with great clarity and lots of special effects, especially that of sunlight falling as well as the waterfalls. The one thing that will make you give this game a minus point is the amount of repetition in the game - you are supposed to go through the same level again and again in the present and the past. The levels like clock tower, which looks almost the same from all angles make it extremely difficult to decide which way you have come from, and where to go.

The controls are far more easy than it sounds to be, but you will have to know how to use them in the right manner. You also have to make use of the surroundings, not avoiding any save points thinking that it is unnecessary or forgetting to drink water while you are low on health. Making use of the walls and pillars for fighting your opponents will always be a good choice, it is even effective against the bosses of the game, like the empress of time, Kaileena herself. You have to grab each opportunity you have, to win this well-presented, thrilling adventure. The key is to keep trying again and again. Now, as The Two Thrones is already released, this game may not be the greatest choice, but still it will be better to play this game before playing the sequel.

HOPE THIS ONE PROVED INTERESTING TO YOU.....